Indeed it doesn’t, and I have not suggested it does, just expressed my view on the logic. Others can of course disagree!
As my digital set up was considerably uplifted recently, by adding an Etheregen switch / Linear ps and a Melco n1z2, I tried today some vinyl classic albums that I have on hirez or cd format :
Al Jarreau live in Europe 1977
Herbie Hancock Man Child 1975
Led Zeppelin 1973
Aretha Franklin 1974
There’s absolutely no competition. These albums, on vinyl, sound so much more lively and real, through my Rp10/ Lyra Delos / ear 912. ( 1/3 of the price of my digital source).
But for modern recordings, the digital is on the same level .
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Although sometimes vinyl is the only way to get it high resolution. I have several vinyl records that were recorded digitally and mastered from hires sources. However, the streaming versions are CD quality only.
So much tech-talk,.and So little music-talk…!!
…and that’s why I say this again…
• 
…
Stay safe…
/Peder🙂
Back to the original question – there definitely are a few posters making a strong case that you can get a lot more music for your money with vinyl. Others are pointing out that they get very enjoyable music with rather ‘modest’ digital replay expenditures.
The wandering into convenience, storage of media, emotional connection to media, etc. was inevitable but form no part of this thread-starter’s analysis, for this purpose.
Hi @Bart , sorry I have to disagree on your point about the other stuff not answering your posed OP question. You asked “vinyl v digital what do you get for your money”, we answered :
When you invest in vinyl playback and medium you get emotion, collectibility and (in a good vinyl playback system) great sound quality.
When you invest in digital playback you get convenience, amazing music choice and (in a good digital playback system) great sound quality.
What do you need to spend on each to get the same “level” of quality and revealing source?
My opinion is that a Rega P8, Apheta 3 and Aria is broadly similar in its ability to reveal as a bare NDX2. Thus a £3500 TT setup is roughly the same as a £5300 digital source or put it another way, you may need to spend 1/3rd more on your digital source to get a similar level as your analog source.
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Listening to Joy Division’s first as album from 1980. Vinyl or Qubuz. When it comes to this puncy recording, Qubuz has let me down. It’s incipid. Whereas the vinyl is as it should be. The first track , Disorder, starts drums, bass, guitar, vocals. The difference was surprising.
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Could be a different mastering issue. Some of my early HDTracks purchases were AWFUL; no punch at all. Or could be other issues.
Cannot help myself…so here goes…
Another interesting facet of the debate is that digital protagonists frequently support their preferences in the reproduction of music by forwarding technical evidence. Supporters of analogue tend to talk about ‘musicality’ and other not easily defined concepts…and probably immeasurable anyway.
The central part of the argument concerns music. Enough said?
For most of us, we do not need to worry about technical or measured values, the value is in the music. When we hear well reproduced music, including all of its immeasurable components, we know it immediately. We do not need to rely on blind testing, we just know it!
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I wonder how much of the difference is similar to what we experience when we eat comfort food, mostly unexceptional on its own, but nevertheless evokes feelings of familiarity. If you played the grooves out of a Van Morrison lp in your teens, the remastered digital 2011 version will never be quite right in comparison.
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Hi Bart,
In almost every case, I have found that pound for pound (or dollar, yen or euro), a best of breed vinyl source (incl phono stage) provides us more musical enjoyment than an equivalent best of breed streamer with 90% of even modern, digital recordings. This does not apply if a mediocre turntable source is compared with a best of breed digital one. This applies with sources ranging from a Rega RP3 to a Vertere/Linn LP12.
However, the cost of acquiring/collecting the music is perhaps 3 times as much with a record collection as with a cd collection, especially if like me you are powerless to resist those special edition, 180g virgin vinyl with extra sleeve note versions. Subscriptions to Qobuz/Tidal/Amazon HD make the costs of a vinyl collection even harder to justify in comparison.
Or, you just enjoy both and don’t worry about partial theories as to why one should be better than the other.
Having said all of the above, we still derive fantastic value for money (and enjoyment) from a 2011 mac mini (bought for other purposes so effectively free) running itunes with the Bitperfect app (£5 to buy) feeding a Naim DAC-V1 via a spare (so free) no name usb cable into a NAP140 and PMC speakers. This would give an equivalent Rega turntable source a good run for its money!
So enjoy your music whether it be all digital, all analogue or somewhere in between.
Best regards, BF
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Yes – definitely something familiar, and for me truly music brings me back to hearing it 40 years ago. But my replay system was quite primitive then, and I don’t think that generally my brain remembers music nuances that specifically. BUT, perhaps familiarity with the “RIAA curve” sound does stick with us???
Ok I have only had my RP 10 for two days, and have played a grand total of 10 albums all the way through, but I am starting to hear the magic of Vinyl again. I think it is breaking in because today is sounding better than yesterday. My digital setup costs about 3k more than the Vinyl TT and phonostage. What I am noticing is that there are better sounding individual songs on the same side of each record, is that normal? The few songs on Vinyl that seem really well recorded definitely surpass digital for engagement, or realism. Hopefully after a 100 hours or so, all Vinyl will surpass digital replay. Another thing I have noticed with Vinyl, damn the side of a record does not last long. I don’t remember it this way from my youth, but I am getting some unexpected exercise. 
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Yes cost to acquire great vinyl media can be high. I’ve stayed pretty picky about it, and staying with my strategy of acquiring just enough vinyl to likely always have something I might want to listen to, without ending up with enough that I lose track of it, play it only once, etc. That to-date has me at ~100 lp’s.
As I browse the used listings, I don’t really see anything else I want from the 70’s. And I pretty much distance myself from the new 180g stuff; no 45’s, and just a few out of print 33’s that if they get re-released I’ll jump on. Otherwise, it never ends 
Very late to this, but I personally feel that what one gets from vinyl is a sense of something that’s more, well, hi-fi, the whole ritual of record playing, removing it from the sleeve, reverently placing it on the platter, cleaning it, lowering the needle, much more than shoving a silver disc in a drawer and pressing a button, And that’s all. Being really, really ancient, long preceding the arrival of CD and the other digital media and being primarily a classical listener, I had an excellent turntable and a big collection of vinyl. And frankly I couldn’t get rid of it fast enough. Now perhaps I’m simply getting deaf (I’ve arrived at the old bit already), but digital suits me just fine. So I digitised all my records (took years) and lived happily ever after. If people prefer vinyl, I have no quibble with them - ultimately the only ears you have to satisfy are your own, and if you hear one better, then, for you it is better, full stop, end of story.
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well modest digital has come a long way to lose “the digital sound”… the main thing that spoils the enjoyment of music…
with an audioquest dragonfly and a tidal hi-fi subscription - that’s more fun than I ever could imagine possible from my teenage days.
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For musical enjoyment the value is with vinyl for me. As much as I love my NDS, I feel my Xerxes X at it’s best leaves a substantial amount of clear water between it and my NDS at its best, in every aspect of SQ and musical connection.
That said, if I had to pick one only between them for keepers, then it would be the NDS for many of the reasons set out by others.
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I think vinyl is more about coolness and nostalgia now (kind of like tubes). I’ve got 2000 albums in the basement gathering dust. Granted, a really well recorded LP on a great vinyl rig can sound wonderful, but you really have to be committed to the whole “ritual” thing and have a pretty high end set up to get the results. When I was buying hundreds of LP’s in the 60’s and 70’s, nobody was making a ritual about playing records; it’s what you had to do to play music, there wasn’t any romance to it. The only thing I miss is the cover art and liner notes.
Let’s see…I can sit on my derriere and instantly access pretty much anything I want to hear in high quality digital, or, I can get up every few minutes (I rarely want to hear a whole side), remove and cue up an LP, clean disc with a dust brush, clean stylus, lower arm onto the track, sit down and enjoy (for a few minutes). Thank god for Qobuz and Roon. Sometimes, progress is a good thing.
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Good to hear you are pleased now and the sound is improving. Be prepared to buy more lps now . I strongly recommend discogs. And you will receive your lps from all over the world, with nice stamps 
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